poverty discussion

You know what irked me in this past election, the fact that for all the bluster about the economy and Americans losing their jobs and how the middle class has been hurt, there was no discussion at all about the the lower classes. No talk about how to help them improve their standing, or what they should do to help themselves. I think it's because a) if people started to talk about it, they might actually have to do something about it, and b) people are afraid that if they make even the slightest comment about how these people can and should help themselves, they will be lambasted by people for insinuating that it's not the man that is keeping these people down.

Discussions of poverty and race (not just African-American, but any minority group) in this country often either get de-railed or don’t even happen because to suggest that people’s problems are even in the slightest bit their own doing is considered insulting. Of course that question is a multi-faceted one, and poverty is certainly not entirely someone’s own doing, but the suggestion that that could even be a part of it at all draws vehement opposition from people like Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, and results in whoever said such having to apologize for what they said and it shuts down any kind of discussion that might have taken place.

This type of fear also comes in the form of almost refusing to criticize someone. People are afraid to criticize things that take place in a particular minority community, be it a racial community or a religious community that is perceived to be slighted or mistreated. For example, it is almost impossible in the United States to criticize Israel without being labeled an Anti-Semite. At American University where I spent my freshman year, I remember people who expressed pro-Palestinian positions being labeled “Nazis”. Any political candidate who proposes taking a critical look at the way Israel has conducted itself in the last half-century basically forfeits the election because they are labeled as anti-Israel.